Japan defense chief eyes China talks: report

[Lankan Ranger]

Japan defense chief eyes China talks: report

Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa is considering seeking talks with his Chinese counterpart in Vietnam next month to repair strained bilateral ties, Kyodo news agency said, citing unnamed government sources.

Tokyo will sound out Beijing about the plan for Kitazawa to meet Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie although China has suspended high-level exchanges with Japan following the detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japan Coast Guard ships off disputed islands, Kyodo said.

The skipper was released and went home last weekend.

Following the trawler captain's release, Beijing demanded compensation and an apology, which Japan rejected, while four Japanese nationals have been held in China since last week on suspicion of violating a law protecting military facilities.

"To ease the tension, it is necessary to hold talks between the Japanese and Chinese defense ministers," Kyodo quoted a Japanese government source as saying on Thursday.

Japan earlier this month expressed concern over China's growing military activities, especially its naval operations, in its annual defense white paper, and urged Beijing to be clearer about its defense spending.

Kitazawa and Liang will be in Hanoi on October 12 for a meeting of defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus eight other countries, including the United States and Russia, Kyodo said.

If the meeting takes place, Kitazawa would convey Japan's concern that if tensions between the two countries increase, it would seriously affect the security of the Asia-Pacific region, Kyodo quoted the government sources as saying.

While visiting Hanoi, Kitazawa is also expected to hold separate meetings with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, Kyodo said.

Preparations are also under way to set up a meeting between Kitazawa and a high-ranking official from Vietnam, which is also involved in a territorial row with China, Kyodo quoted the sources as saying.

Japan defense chief eyes China talks: report | Reuters

 

[muse]

I hope the Chinese are very clear about what they want and that they realize they will need Chinese opinion to back them up and this will mean that they be very forth coming about the threat the Japanese minister is to convey.

 

[muse]

A while back we alerted forum members about Adm. Mullen's assurance to India that US would support India should India choose to confront China - some interests in the US has taken a decision to confront China and seek to ensure that the weak American president fall in line -- below is an editorial from an influential American paper:


The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
Is Obama ready for a stare-down with China?

China's provocation of Japan over the Senkaku Islands shows a need for Obama to be ready for a crisis in Asia. He must buck up Japan and send a clear signal to Bejing.

By the Monitor's Editorial Board
posted October 1, 2010 at 1:28 pm EDT

After nearly two years in office, President Obama remains untested as a commander in chief during a tense standoff – his own Cuban missile crisis, for instance, or Iranian hostage-taking, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, or 9/11.

But he'd best prepare for such an encounter in Asia.

Last month, China bared its fangs at America’s chief Asian ally, Japan. Beijing appeared to precipitate a crisis with its weak neighbor when the captain of a Chinese fishing boat deliberately rammed two Japanese Coast Guard vessels near the Senkaku Islands.

For more than a century, Japan has had clear legal control of those rocky, uninhabited islands near Okinawa. But that has not stopped China from recently seeking ownership of them for offshore oil or to show everyone – especially the US Navy – who’s the new boss in Asian waters.

Beijing surprisingly escalated the incident after Japan detained the captain. China retaliated by halting critical mineral exports to Japan and arrested four Japanese visiting China. Even before the incident, the Chinese Navy had been swarming near the islands.

After two weeks of hostile reactions, Japan finally capitulated Sept. 24, releasing the captain. But not before other Asian nations saw just how much of a bully China has become.

The United States praised Tokyo’s decision as a diplomatic necessity – but not before quietly stating that the defense treaty with Japan would require the US military to defend the islands if China took them by force.

The crisis still lingers. China and Japan are demanding apologies. And Tokyo is considering whether to station its regular troops near the Senkaku Islands. The incident is thus a wake-up call for Mr. Obama to prepare for China again flexing its muscles in a dangerous way.

Obama’s national security strategy, however, is to primarily focus on rebuilding the US. Indeed, in September, when China protested about a planned military exercise in the Yellow Sea with a US aircraft carrier, the US backed down rather than risk Chinese anger. And Obama didn’t do much to persuade Beijing that its ally, North Korea, was guilty of sinking a South Korean naval ship last March, killing 46 sailors.

In July, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did take a legal stand against China’s bold claims to a set of disputed islands in the South China Sea, saying the claims must be resolved with multilateral diplomacy. But the US hasn’t done much about that since then.

President Clinton was tested by China in 1996 after it lobbed missiles near Taiwan. He sent two aircraft carriers into the area in a show of defense for the island nation, which China claims as its own.

But these days China sees the US as weak. The American economy is stagnant. Many of the top Obama officials, such as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, are leaving the administration. The president wants major cuts in the Pentagon. US forces began to leave Iraq this year, and Obama plans to start a US retreat from Afghanistan next year.

Since 2009, China has become more assertive in Asia. It recently told its neighbors that they are “small countries” while China is a “large country” – and that they should not expect an equal relationship.

This bluntness only raised fears of confrontation, especially as China expands it naval reach. Japan now wonders if it can count on the US in a crisis. It is considering a boost in its military spending. Over the past decade, Japan’s defense budget has declined about 5 percent – while China’s spending on its forces has soared.

Obama can help Japan by encouraging it to raise its military spending and invest in more defensive weapons. Such US advice is often needed to overcome decades of Japanese reluctance to become a military power again.

Next month, Japan will host a summit of Asian and Pacific countries. This will provide an opportunity for Obama to make clear where the US stands on China’s coercive actions and his own readiness to respond to a crisis in the region.

China must be persuaded that there is plenty of room in Asia for big nations to work together for security and prosperity. Those nations include Australia, India, the US, Japan, Indonesia, and yes, China.

But until China sees its role as a benign benefactor in Asia, a US president should be ready to check China if it tries to strong-arm its neighbors in an imperialist way or hold them hostage to threats.

If other Asian nations can’t look to the US for backup, they would be well advised to start looking more to themselves.

 

[huzihaidao12]

All issues are territorial disputes, all are known, there has been. No new issues, China's position is clear, without any change.

On Japan, can only say that Japan broke a tacit agreement to maintain for decades in China and Japan. Rules of the game has been destroyed, only to start building the new rules of the game. Japan's position in Japan. China's position in china, Japan is willing to take risks to do something, China will defend its interests, we have rights.I support China and Japan to solve this problem as soon as possible and peace, but must ensure that Japan would not take another chance, regardless of domestic political elections, or Japan's national policy.

I know that the West once again want to create the image of China, I asked, where there are any new problems? Any new trouble? All is not existing?

 

[muse]

I think the editorial is important, it tone, the language, the characterizations are very important, in my judgment - there is no point in brushing it under the carpet - even if Japan would want to come to some agreement, the editorial suggests that it may not be able to, that is to say the US may not allow it and will use this incident for it's purposes.

China must use all it's diplomatic skill to ensure that the US and others who may want to use such characterizations to demonize China and to create the perception of China as a bully and the US as a "benign benefactor".

Such characterizations, forum readers will agree, belong to an age when colonial" and "cold war" paradigms or narratives were acceptable, yet this seems to the thinking that still informs some sections of US policy makers.

 

[Nomenclature]

I won't pay much attention to editorials since they're generally written by newspaper editors who have next to zero knowledge about what they're editorializing on.

This part is particularly absurd:

For more than a century, Japan has had clear legal control of those rocky, uninhabited islands near Okinawa. But that has not stopped China from recently seeking ownership of them for offshore oil or to show everyone – especially the US Navy – who’s the new boss in Asian waters.

Unknown to editors at CS Monitors Diaoyutai was under U.S administration for more than 20 years after WWII, and it was the decision by the U.S government in 1970 to transfer the island to Japanese control rather than the 'discovery' of oil in 1968 that started the current defend Diaoyutai movement.

BTW, the popular movement was actually started by Taiwanese students in the U.S, and the current Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou was such an activist when he was studying law in America.

 

[muse]

editors who have next to zero knowledge about what they're editorializing on.

OK, you don't have to think that just because these editors are projecting a picture different from the facts you know, that they may have a intention behind it, that this may reflect a thinking.

 

[huzihaidao12]

I think the editorial is important, it tone, the language, the characterizations are very important, in my judgment - there is no point in brushing it under the carpet - even if Japan would want to come to some agreement, the editorial suggests that it may not be able to, that is to say the US may not allow it and will use this incident for it's purposes.

China must use all it's diplomatic skill to ensure that the US and others who may want to use such characterizations to demonize China and to create the perception of China as a bully and the US as a "benign benefactor".

Such characterizations, forum readers will agree, belong to an age when colonial" and "cold war" paradigms or narratives were acceptable, yet this seems to the thinking that still informs some sections of US policy makers.

All need the money, U.S did not, China and East Asia, Southeast Asia, in close economic relations, the huge trade opportunities, no one is a fool, everyone knows that the key is still interest. United States can not provide, then why to become cannon fodder? Even with some money, and no one wants to be cannon fodder.

 

[Nomenclature]

OK, you don't have to think that just because these editors are projecting a picture different from the facts you know, that they may have a intention behind it, that this may reflect a thinking.

No, the problem I see is not just they have their agenda (which they sure do), rather is the clear lack of knowledge on the subject of they're writing on. It's either that or they're deliberately misleading their readers.

 

[muse]

It's either that or they're deliberately misleading their readers.

Yes, it goes along with their agenda, remember history is that collection of "facts", we "choose to recall"